Powell's Real Endorsement

As you have likely heard, former General Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama yesterday. That's fine and good. I am glad he did it, but that wasn't the most important thing he said.

The Republican nutty fringe has been trying to paint Obama as a Muslim since the beginning of the campaign. Powell corrected the rumor mill in stating that Obama is indeed a Christian, but more powerfully, he asks why it should matter if he is.

Powell said:

"I feel particularly strong about this because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay, was of a mother at Arlington Cemetery and she had her head on the headstone of her son's grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone, and it gave his awards - Purple Heart, Bronze Star - showed that he died in Iraq, gave his date of birth, date of death, he was 20 years old. And then at the very top of the head stone, it didn't have a Christian cross. It didn't have a Star of David. It has a crescent and star of the Islamic faith.

"And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan. And he was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was fourteen years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he could serve his country and he gave his life."

Source: TPM.